Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Groups on Facebook

Many of us on Facebook belong to private groups; groups that are dedicated to hobbies, collecting, schools or home towns. I belong to quite a few, and one in particular, which is dedicated to my home state of West Virginia. I love West Virginia and its people (most of them) but some of the ones on that site are getting tiresome.

Recently, the question was asked " Does anyone know what a davenport is? My aunt always used this word.... Or a calvenator?"

Several people answered couch to the first part. Then I commented that a davenport is a couch and a Kelvinator was a refrigerator, and I posted a link to the Wikipedia site about Kelvinator and where it came from. After my comment, quite a few people commented and said almost completely the same thing I had said. Now I don't want to set myself up as the authority on things - but I was right and it could be shown easily that I was. Why did so many others feel it necessary to add their two cents, since their two cents were the same as mine?

So then, I asked the question: "When a question is asked on a Facebook site, why do people keep reiterating the same answers? When someone answers it correctly - that should be it. We certainly don't need 50 or more comments saying virtually the same thing, do we?"

And one woman answered "I do."

I gave up.

But the comments kept coming, and coming, and coming. And then a woman said they ALL needed to join the conversation. HUH?? Another woman just posted that it is just a form of group participation, and that is "what West Virginians are about." If she means mindless repetition - maybe so - but I doubt that's what we are about.

Last week, this (or similar) question was asked: "What foods make you think of home?" Many of the answers to this one were repetitive, but that's okay with me, since the answers were all subjective. It is possible for 2,000+ people to all think of the same type of food when they think of home. But a davenport and a Kelvinator? That's not a matter of opinion, it is a fact. I just don't understand this need to repeat what has been said over and over, unless they want to see their name in print (or want the others to see it.) There are over 12,000 people on that particular site. God help us if they ALL think they have to join the conversation. As of this morning, there are 130+ comments.......some people even suggested that if I didn't like seeing multiple comments, I could leave the site. LOL

I don't know that we can always understand why some people do what they do. Now take me ..... I jettisoned Facebook not long after opening my acct several years ago for many reasons that make sense to me. I left what was on there, but haven't added blog friends or even other new people and haven't visited the site for a couple years.